Anthea Turner

Anthea Turner
Born	Anthea Milicent Turner (1960-05-25) 25 May 1960 Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
Occupation(s)	Journalist, television presenter and media personality
Notable credit(s)	Presenting: Blue Peter (BBC) Top of the Pops (BBC) GMTV (ITV) Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife(BBC)
Spouse(s)	Peter Powell (1990–98) (divorced) Grant Bovey (2000–present)

Anthea Millicent Turner (born 25 May 1960 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English television presenter and media personality.

Education

Turner was educated at the independent St. Dominic's High School (since demolished) in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent .

Career

Turner joined BBC Radio Stoke as a runner, eventually joining breakfast show presenter Bruno Brookes as part of his crew. The couple became romantically involved and employed Peter Powell as an agent through his management company.

Move to television

Turner moved into television through Sky Channel (UK) presenting live music programmes from July 1986 - 1989. Her debut on national television was with the BBC on But First This, which led to her fronting two series for the BBC on the Saturday morning show Up2U.

The short-lived Saturday morning children's show UP2U was a flop, and is chiefly remembered for a motorcycle stunt that went wrong. Turner suffered burns and temporary hearing loss, which led to her successful lawsuit against the BBC.

She was the only non-Radio One DJ to regularly present Top of the Pops, remaining with the programme for three years.

Blue Peter and GMTV

Turner began to present the children's television show Blue Peter in 1992, and around this time, was also associated with publicising 'The Y Plan', a system of exercise developed by the London YMCA. She moved on to presenting on Totally Live on pan-European music channel Music Box, the ITV morning television station GMTV, as well as the first National Lottery draw on BBC1 in 1994, and the ITV travel show Wish You Were Here...? She released two work-out videos: Anthea Turner Body Basics (1996) and Anthea Turner: Tone, Lift And Condition: The Inch Buster (1999), both produced and distributed by Grant Bovey, who lacks the significance or importance to have his own Wikipedia entry.

The relationship between Turner and her GMTV co-presenter was frosty, with Holmes issuing an ultimatum to the GMTV management that he would leave if they did not sack his colleague; Turner lost her job. After Bovey left his wife Della for Turner, the ensuing tabloid interest, and then the "Flakegate" scandal (see below), Turner's career went into a decline.

Attempting to revive her career, Turner presented BBC1's short-lived Saturday evening programme Your Kids Are In Charge with her sister in 2000. The following year, she participated in Celebrity Big Brother, and was the third contestant to be evicted, after Chris Eubank and Vanessa Feltz. But nothing seemed to work to erase the fallout from the media reaction to Flakegate, and in 2003 she came 15th in a Channel 4 poll of 100 Worst Britons.

Career revival

In February 2006, Turner made a television comeback on BBC Three in Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife, where she taught disorganised housewomen and men how to clean and run their houses. The series was accompanied by three related books. Later in 2006, she appeared as a guest on BBC Two's music-based panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In April 2009 Turner appeared on the ITV reality show 'Hells kitchen' with Marco Pierre White, along side her husband Grant Bovey. Currently she is presenting the show Help me Anthea - I'm infested for BBC Three, as she tackles people whose homes have been overrun by pests.

Personal life

Turner's private life has led the tabloids to take a continual interest in her. After her long relationship with fellow Stoke resident and one-time DJ co-worker Bruno Brookes, she married her manager, former DJ Peter Powell. The marriage did not last.

In 1998, Turner's present husband, Grant Bovey, left his wife Della for her; he then reconciled with Della, before leaving her again. Bovey and Turner eventually married on 23 August 2000, and live in Chiddingfold, Surrey. On 23 February 2009, the Daily Mail reported that their Surrey mansion has been put up for sale owing to catastrophic failures in Bovey's buy-to-let property business, Imagine Homes. The newspaper reported Turner is making television commercials for household detergents to alleviate financial difficulties.

Turner is keen to start her own family with Bovey, but for various reasons, this has not yet been achieved. She is stepmother to Bovey's three daughters Lily, Amelia and Claudia, from his previous marriage.

Controversies

Flakegate

In 2000, Turner received negative ad publicity from the tabloids when photographs of her wedding reception, published in the magazine OK! in an exclusive deal worth £450,000, showed the couple (apparently) using their wedding to publicise a new Cadbury chocolate bar, Snowflake. OK! issued the photo to the media with the caption "Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey: exclusive OK! wedding photograph, enjoying Cadbury's new Snowflake. For the complete wedding coverage and a free Cadburys Snowflake, buy OK! magazine this weekend. OK! First for celebrity news." The Sun described it as "the most sickening wedding photo ever", and the event is now referred to as "Flakegate". However, Turner, Bovey, Cadbury's and OK! all denied that the chocolate was part of a sponsorship deal. However the wedding was rumoured to have cost in excess of £150,000 which was paid for by OK! magazine. Pictures of their wedding and their subsequent honeymoon were in the magazine for the next two weeks. Turner and Bovey insist that someone had stuck the chocolate bar in her hand and snapped a picture before she knew what was happening. Richard Desmond the proprietor of OK! and his wife were sitting next to the newly married Boveys at the time.

Charity work

Turner was reported to have fallen out with the Douglas Macmillan Hospice in 2004 for failing to turn up to fund-raising events. She was dropped by the charity as one of their fund-raising patrons. Turner has allegedly clashed with other organisations for similarly failing to deliver satisfactory support and publicity.

In 2007, she was disowned by the local charity, NSAAA, for failing to contribute to their £5 million campaign which only raised £15,000 since it started.